Update on CN15-035, Voluntary Disclosure of Unreported Goods Transiting Through the United States to a Subsequent Country

The following is reproduced from an email by the Canada Border Services Agency.

Further to discussions at the November 30 meeting of the Border Commercial Consultative Committee Export Sub-Committee, the purpose of this notice is to provide you with an update on the status of Customs Notice CN 15-035.

As you are aware, on November 16, 2015, the CBSA published Customs Notice CN 15-035: Voluntary Disclosure of Unreported Goods Transiting Through the United States to a Subsequent Country.  In this notice, clients were given a six-month grace period for voluntarily disclosing undeclared exports that should have been reported to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The notice explained that once the grace period had passed, compliance verification activities would be conducted by the CBSA and penalties could be issued for failure to report exported goods.

The grace period ended in June 2016.  We are pleased to report that we saw a large number of companies take advantage of the period to voluntarily disclose their unreported exports, and we want to thank you and your members for your cooperation with this exercise.

Now that the grace period has ended, the CBSA will continue to ensure compliance with reporting requirements. In addition to our usual pre-export examinations and risk assessments, we have also implemented a post-export verification process.  As part of this process, some of your members may receive requests for supplementary documentation relating to their exports within a given period, including, for example, copies of submitted declarations, commercial invoices, accounts receivable, etc.  These requests will be made under Subsection 97.2(1) of the Customs Act.  Note that Administrative Monetary Penalties may be issued as a result of any non-compliance found.

As a reminder, the Voluntary Disclosure Program remains in place.  Exporters can continue to submit Voluntary Disclosure applications using the process outlined in Memorandum D11-6-4, Relief of Interest and/or Penalties Including Voluntary Disclosure.  Note that once a verification has begun, the exporter under review will be unable to submit a voluntary disclosure for the period under review.

Questions can be directed to IE_Compliance-IE_Conformite@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca.